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Aviation History
1985
1985 - 0127.PDF
INTERNATIONAL SATELLITE DIRECTORY Future projects (science) AXAF-Nasa Nasa's planned Advanced X-ray Astro physics Facility (AXAF), to be placed in orbit early next decade by Shuttle, will be similar in size and weight to the Space Telescope. AXAF will have a 15-year operational life and its instruments will be interchangeable in orbit. The facility, with its multiple pairs of nested mirrors required to focus the high-energy x-rays, will be some 100 times more sensitive than the previous HEAO high-energy astrophysics observatory. Cluster-ESA The European Space Agency plans to launch Cluster, a system of four satellites, in the late 1980s to investigate the Earth's magnetosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. Four satellites are necessary to distinguish between spatial and temporal variations in the electromagnetic field in order to deter mine such quantities as divergence, gradient, and curl. Cobe-Nasa Nasa's Cosmic Background Explorer (Cobe) will investigate the diffuse radi ation of the universe at wavelengths between 1 micron and 13mm. Cobe is planned for launch by Shuttle in late 1987 or early 1988. A Hamilton Standard hydrazine propulsion system, with 860kg of fuel and 12 2kg thrusters, will be used to raise the spacecraft from Shuttle's 300km orbit to its 900km Sun- synchronous orbit. EUVE-Nasa Nasa has started work on its Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVB), to be placed in orbit by Shuttle in 1988. EUVE will complete the first all-sky survey in the extreme ultraviolet band of the elec tromagnetic spectrum, detecting radiation which cannot penetrate the Earth's atmo sphere. EUVE will carry a 500kg science payload supplied by the University of California, Berkeley, comprising four 40cm extreme ultraviolet telescopes and a spectrometer. The spacecraft will be placed in 550km-high orbit. Mariner II-Nasa Nasa will seek approval in 1987 to build Mariner II, a spare-parts spacecraft designed for launch by Shuttle in July 1990 to rendezvous with, then accompany, the comet Kopff. Mariner II would use motors and propellant tanks from Viking liliilftPPMiiiplII! The Tethered Satellite is an Italian/US programme to tow a 500kg spacecraft up to 100km from the Shuttle and antennas from Voyager. The space craft would be launched using the Centaur G upper stage. The $300 million mission to approach within 30km of the Kopff nucleus is a joint US/German venture. Sigma-USSR/France Sigma is a joint Soviet/French project to launch an X-ray/gamma-ray observatory in 1987. The spacecraft will be a modified Venera probe, redesignated Astron. France will supply the gamma-ray tele scope, while the Soviet Union will develop the X-ray instrument. Weighing some 3,500kg on launch, the Astron spacecraft will have an 18 to 24-month operational life. SIRTF-Nasa Nasa's planned Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) is a follow-on to the Iras infrared astronomical satellite. SIRTF will be some 1,000 times more sensitive than Iras, with a spectral resolution between 100 and 1,000 times greater and extending to shorter and longer wave lengths. Planned as a 1988 "new start", SIRTF would be placed in high Earth orbit, as was Iras, or on the US Space Station, and would be maintained in orbit (human presence is required to replenish the super-fluid helium used to cool the telescope). Soho-ESA I The European Space Agency is planning to launch the Solar Heliospheric Obser vatory (Soho) in 1992 to conduct continuous observations of the solar surface, solar corona, and solar wind. Soho will be placed in orbit around the Sun at a location where the gravitational pulls of both Sun and Earth are equal, but opposite, and will therefore remain fixed on the Sun-Earth line some 1 • 6 million km from Earth during its two-year mission. Starlab-Australia/USA Starlab is an Australian/US proposal to orbit a retrievable, reusable, meter-class telescope in 1990. Designed to complete ten missions lasting six to 12 months, Starlab will comprise a lm-diameter tele scope and two high-resolution imaging devices, one visible, one ultraviolet, supplied by Australia. Canada was to have provided the telescope, but withdrew from the project in 1984. Tethered Satellite—Italy/USA First flight of the US/Italian Tethered Satellite System is planned for December 1987. The 1 • 5m-diameter, 500kg satellite will be deployed upward or downward from the Shuttle payload bay on a tether up to 100km long. Deployed upward, as it will be for its first engineering verification flight, the Tethered Satellite will study electrodynamic phenomena. Deployed downward, the satellite will trawl the Earth's upper atmosphere. Italy will build the satellite, Nasa the deployment system. FLIGHT International, 12 January 1985 55
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